Magic au: Meeting With The Destination
by GizaMatox
Summary: Keith goes to a mysterious store that may have what he needs, but it always important to expect the unexpected. A Bakugan au that spectraslilbitch and I created. Vestal is a world that mix high technology with magic. This story focus on how Keith/Spectra and Gus met and how they start working together. WARNING - can have strong content for sensitive viewers -
1. The Meeting

Keith looked again at the address written on the small piece of paper to make sure he was on the right place, he began to think that maybe that fortune teller was mocking him. That he would send him to a simple flower shop as a punishment for calling him a liar.

He looked again at the building. 'The Enchanted Forest' was written on the signboard, It was a small and simple store, a dollhouse in contrast with the larger buildings around it. The blonde man looked inside through the large window on the left, just like his exterior, the inside was small, but organized and seemed very cozy, with bouquets and flowers pots along the shelves on the coral walls. In the back of the store he could see a wooden counter with a purple curtain blocking a entrance, and resting his feet on it was a man, no older than him, his back laid on his chair while his shiny green eyes were focused on a book with a leather cover, his long and blue dreadlocks falling over his shoulders.

'Well, the place sure had something enchanted' he thought.

Keith decided he won't be certain about anything standing outside while peeking at the distracted pretty boy. He put the piece of paper inside his jacket's pocket and opens the door, the bell on top of it announcing his presence. The sound made the long"haired man take his attention away from the book, he stood up with a jump.

"Good morning sir! Welcome to The Enchanted Forest. How can I help you?" the boy said with a warm and inviting smile.

Keith couldn't help but return the smile with another

" Good morning." he looked around. He was right, the place sure was cozy, with flowers and other plants distributed around the room on shelves. In a corner, a wooden table with a few bouquets wrapped on shiny paper, a strong scent filled the place, almost nauseous " it's a beautiful store that you have here friend."

The man's smile grew large, with a spark of pride

" Thank you sir. It's not easy keep it like this but all the work is worth it " the man studied him, "I don't remember seeing you around here before."

" Yeah, I moved to the town a few weeks ago " he walked through the store, the scent getting a bif stronger with every minute he spent on that place, but still nothing he couldn't tolerate " and someone told me you could help me with something.

" Well, in that case, welcome to our town " he gave him a wink " so, how can I help you sir?

Keith studied the boy, he didn't seemed like the guy that could help him, but he learned to never judge a book for it's cover. He walks into his direction and leans on the counter.

" I'm looking for mushrooms " he says looking into the man's eyes.

The man blinked, confused.

"mushrooms? "

" Yes, mushrooms. Special ones."

The man giggled

" I'm sorry sir, but i don't sell mushrooms. I have flowers, succulents, cactus... but not mushrooms."

Keith wasn't ready to give up, he tries again.

" I'm sure you sell it, a person told me you could have what I need. Please, I will pay anything."

The man's leans on the counter, his face getting closer to Keith's.

" I said i don't sell mushrooms, whoever told you sir i'm afraid that was mistaken or made you by fool " his voice was firm and serious.

Keith looks at him for a few minutes, then he sighs, disappointed.

" Okay, sorry to bother you. You're right, i was mistaken."

The man smiled again.

" it's okay sir, I'm sorry I couldn't help you."

Keith gave him a weak smirk and turned to leave. He opened the door and closes it behind him. Now outside, Keith lays on the door, sighing deeply, feeling the clean air. He decided the next time he see the guy who sended him to that store he would make sure to give him a unpleasant surprise.

He puts his hands on his pockets and starts his way back home, he passes through the window and looks inside one last time, the man was once again reading, one arm on the counter and the other one holding his left cheek, his long sleeve showing a bit of skin, and what it seems a symbol tattooed on it.

Keith stops immediately. He goes back and presses his face on the window. That mark, an ordinary thing for the eyes of a normal person, but not for Keith.

A smile crosses his face, maybe his mysterious friend wasn't mocking him after all. If someone could give what he needed was definitely that guy.

Keith quickly goes back inside, making the man jump startled once again.

" Already back sir?"

Keith chuckles

" Alright, quit the acting."

The man looks at him confused.

" You almost got me " he slowly walks on his direction " the entire 'flower shop owner' thing. It's a perfect disguise actually. Very good one.

" Sir, I don't know what you're talking about."

Keith leans on the counter.

" Oh you sure do. Now, will you give me what I want?"

The man leans too, visibly impatient.

" I already said I don't sell mushrooms!"

" Of course you do " Keith comes closer " after all, you're a 'Child of Gaia', right?"

The blue haired man's eyes opens wide, shocked. Keith grins, that was all the confirmation he needed.

"The book you're reading " he gesture with his head to the book open on the counter " 'mystical botanic: the spiritual benefits of herbs', it's not a common thing I would find a florist reading about, it gave me a clue but i still wasn't very sure. Anyone can have a weird fascination right?"

The man kept focused on him silently.

"But that mark... I saw it when I was leaving, i would recognize that anywhere. "

The man was still silent

" It represents Gaia, the ancient goddess of nature and creation. Now any person, a very passionate florist maybe, could tattoo that mark. But you didn't tattooed this by the regular way right? It's burned on your skin. Why would you do such a painful thing? Maybe because it was part of a ritual?"

A crushing silence filled the room, the only sound coming from the birds chirping outside and the fan moving slowly on the roof.

Then the long haired man broke the silence

"You said someone told you about my store " he raises a eyebrow " Who did?"

"A fortune teller, he didn't tell me his name but he said that if I found you you would help me."

"What was he like?"

"Very tall, buffy, the guy looks more like an MMA fighter than a fortune teller."

Another silence fills the room. Then this time Keith breaks it.

"So... can I have my mushrooms?"

The man smiles, that inviting and warm smile again. He goes to the left and opens a small door on the counter.

" Follow me, sir."

The shopkeeper opens the purple curtain behind him and leaves the room. Keith follows him and discovers a large hallway. On the right was a entrance with a flight of stairs leading the second floor and in the end of the hallway was a big rustic oak door, with no knobs or any visible way to unlock it.

The man approached the door and puts a hand on it's center, Keith could hear he whispering a few words before the runes carved on the wood began to glow with a green"ish light, he hears a weak 'click' then the door opens. Revealing a set of stairs that leads to a dark basement. The only light illuminating the stairs coming from the weak sunlight invading the hallway through the curtained door behind them.

" This way, sir. " the man says entering the room and began to went down.

Keith followed him, it wasn't the first dark, creepy and hidden place he ever saw, but maybe he could include it on his top 5 creepier places.

As he went down Keith notices it was longer and deeper than he thought. The more he went deeper, the room went darker and the scent got stronger, so much he had to stop and lean on the wall and wait for his head to stop aching.

" You okay there? " the store owner asked, Keith couldn't see him but by his voice tone he knew he was at the end of the flight of stairs.

" Yeah " he answers loud " I can't see shit but I'm kinda used to dark places."

Keith takes a deep breath and goes back on his way. He goes down on another set of stairs when he feels someone grabbing gently his hand.

His instinct was to pull it immediately but he calms down when he hears the man's voice.

"Careful now, just one more set."

Keith felt his cheeks burning at the man's hand feeling on his, It was warm and soft. He was thankful the man couldn't see him like that.

The blond man followed the shopkeeper to a few more sets, he stops when the man gestures to him.

"Wait a minute sir. I recommend you to close your eyes."

Keith couldn't hold a chuckle. 'I don't think it will make a difference on this void' he thinks. But he does it anyway because his felt it was wise to obey him.

Seconds later he wears the man shout

"Calor!"

Followed by a light that even with his eyes closed he could see. Maybe it was really a good idea obey him.

"It's good now, you can open it."

Keith slowly opens his eyes, getting used to it after all that darkness. What he saw made he lose his breath for a few seconds.

Now that place was upped to the 3rd place on his rank.

The basement was three times bigger than the store on the upper floor, with three corridors with shelves full of plants he never saw before, colorful flowers, bottles of potions and bowls with herbs and spices. He looked around in awe and discovered the source of the light, huge vines around the walls going to the roof, with shiny spheres hung along it. So bright he calculated one sphere could illuminate a small room.

"That's...amazing…" he whispered.

The man smirked.

"Yes, it's. My secret store. And you're one of the few living beings who got the chance to see it."

"I'm honored, I really am."

The man offer his hand.

"By the way, let me introduce myself: I'm Gus Grav"

Keith shook his hand.

"I'm Spe" Keith Fermin." he felt it wasn't safe yet for his new friend to know his true identity.

"Pleased to meet you Keith, could you please follow me? Let's find what you need."

Keith followed Gus through a corridor on the middle of the large basement, the scent was still strong, he was relieved the warm temperature of the room could alleviate his nausea. While walking he had to stop to look at the exotic collection, he was feeling like a kid on a toy store. A mix of curiosity and wonder.

They reached the back of the room and there was a door. Gus took a key from his pocket and opened it. Inside was a bit dark. A few seconds later the room got illuminated, Keith noticed the same vines he saw along the basement with the shiny spheres were tangled around the wall and on a table.

The room seemed to be a lab, with shelves on the right corner with bottles with potions, empty bottles, a few bowls and tools. On the left corner was a large table with some tools and chemical materials. in the center was a big cauldron made of dark iron.

'A cauldron' he thought, 'how original..'

"This is where my magic happens" Gus says while cleaning the table, "sorry about the mess but it's a kinda impossible to have this place clean."

"That's fine" keith chuckles, "my work place isn't the most organized place either. I presume I'm not your first customer."

"You're right. I apologise for my behaviour but as I said before, I never saw you around here. I have a good memory so I'm certain that I would remember selling something for you."

"There's another witches on this town?"

"Not on this town" Gus says while dusting a chair from behind the table, "but i'm the only store who sells herbs and potions for witchcraft and potion brewing on the Beta region, so i got customers from different towns around the area."

Keith whistles. "That's a lot."

"Now you understand why I can't never have this place clean. Now, where's it…" he opens the drawers located behind the large table "Aha! Found it" he take from the inside of the second drawer and wand, it was made of dark wood, probably oak, with some silver details.

"Now let's talk about business. Please, have a sit" he makes a quick gesture with the wand and quickly a stool slide from a corner and stops behind Keith. He sits and waits for Gus to get comfortable on his chair.

"Now, how can I help you?" He says crossing his fingers on the table.

Keith moves the stool closer to the table. He reach for his jean's pocket and takes from inside a paper carefully folded. He opens it and slides to the shop keeper. It was a page, ripped from a old book, with a picture of a yellow-ish mushroom and informations about the fungus written on latin.

"I'm looking for this, I heard it's a very rare specimen. I came here with hope that you could have it"

Gus takes the page and analyzes it, biting the tip of his wand. "hmm, it sure is rare. It almost impossible to find Gold Drops since it's very sensible to pollution, the only places you can find it is on remote forests completely distant from human activity. Growing them is impossible." he looks at Keith grinning "Not for me, of course. But they're not cheap though"

Keith smirks. "As I said, I will pay anything for them."

"That's what I like to hear. Wait right here" Gus get up from his chair and leaves the room.

Now alone, Keith can finally dismantle his calm countenance. He rest his head on the table, sweating and gasping. He could feel that damned scent destroying from the inside for any second he stayed on that place.

'There's something really wrong with this place' a deep voice echoed on his mind.

"No shit" keith says rolling his eyes, that simple act making his head hurt like hell "then why aren't you doing your job? Aren't you supposed to protect me from any curses?"

'What do you thing i've been doing all this time?!' a faint red light pulsed on his chest 'but I simply cannot protect you here. Something is neutralizing my powers. Something powerful. We need to get out of here'

"No! I searched for months for that mushrooms. We need them for our plan!"

'You won't get nothing done if you keep on that state Spectra!' the voice roared

"Focus on protecting me and let me take care of the rest."

The voiced stoped, but he could feel it's disapproval. Keith got up and walked around the room, impatient that the shopkeeper was taking too long. His heads was aching and his thoughts were confused. He had no clue what was happening, maybe it was a curse, but he wasn't on the town time enough to make enemies. Maybe it was the fortune teller? But he couldn't find any reason for him to curse him. Maybe it was the hideous food from the food truck near the park?

The room was spinning, he leaned on the wall next to the door. The scent filling his lungs. He gasped out for clean air, like he was drowning. He tried to walk back to his stood but on the way everything was fading black, his consciousness slowly dissipating like a cloud of smoke. The only things he could recall before falling was the shocked blue haired man on the door 11and Helios roaring on his mind.


	2. The Discovery

It was meant to be a calm day. The store would be open just till midday due to the slow businesses on that month. It was the Bloody Moon month*, people usually don't buy flowers on that period. Not even his 'special customers' come to buy his 'exotic products'. Everyone was too busy buying scary costumes, ornaments to decorate their homes and alcohol for the ones who were too old to go after candy.

The plan was: closing the store at 12:30pm, go home, watch tv, maybe get high with his freshly purchased Wonderland Drops leaves, eat something he would only be able to do it while high, regret doing it and promise to never smoke this stuff again(a promise he breaks at least once every two months), take a shower and go to sleep.

It was a good plan, but when you run that kind of business you learn to expect anything. But for sure Gus wasn't expecting he had to drag an unconscious body through the stairs to his flat on the second floor.

Gus kicked the door that was slightly opened, since his hands were too busy holding the corpse on his back. His customer was taller than him so, even if he was skinny he still was as heavy as a potato sack. He tries to keep balance with the height on his shoulders as he passes through the door.

He goes to the living room and drops the body on his couch. He wipes the sweat from his forehead panting. After Gus catched his breath he could go back to what he was doing minutes after Keith passed out. Being in panic.

"Vulcan! Vulcan!" he shouts while looking around. A small golem, not bigger than a 2 year old child, comes running from the kitchen, his metal boots making thump noises on the wooden floor. Vulcan notices the body on the couch and looks at Gus, he couldn't see the golem's face, since he was wearing a helmet, with bull horns on each side, but his body language could be translated by 'what is going on?'

"I know, I'm just as confused as you" Gus replies to him. He knees next to the couch and places his ear on keith's chest to see if he was still alive. His heart was beating, but he was having trouble to breath.

Gus gets up and walks around the room. His hands gripping his long blue dreads, deadly worried. A ton of possibilities about what happened passing through his head. Maybe a spider bit him. He dealt with the spider infestation weeks ago but some could have survived, maybe hiding between the vines around the basement. He could have eaten one golden apple while he wasn't paying attention. It won't be the first time that a person inadvertently ate one, fooled by the shiny light the fruit produced. He was getting more nervous, the more time he wasted thinking about what happened more close this strange that Volt sended to him was from death.

He immediately stops, he knew what he should do.

"Vulcan! The phone" the small golem quicks grabs the telephone on the counter that separates the kitchen from the living room, he hands it to Gus that starts to digit a number. The only person who could solve this mess was the one who started.

A deep voice answered "You've reached Wizard Proxy, this is volt speaking, how can i help you?"

"Cut that shit out Volt" Gus cuts his rehearsed presentation "the guy you told to find me is dying on my couch. But I'm sure you probably knew that would happen."

"Good morning for you too Gus" Volt says on a calm tone "and yes, I was just helping him but now seeing clearly I regret this decision. Maybe you should let him die. I will help you later with the body."

Gus stay static, not believing what he just heard "I don't have time for jokes Volt!"

"I wish I was joking. Let him die, I will come to your place and help you hide the body.

"Volt I can't let him die! This is wrong! Besides, I was about to make some good business before he passed out"

"Trust me Gus, I wouldn't ask for you to do this if I wasn't serious. He will give you trouble in the future"

"Just… tell me what should I do to save him" Gus insists, he would deal with 'the trouble' later. Now he needs the money.

Volt sighs on the phone "I was expecting for you to ignore me but I still got hope. Take off his shirt, it will help him breath. Good luck." he hangs up.

"Wait, what? How that would he- hello?" Gus throws away the phone in frustration, vulcan grabs it before it hits the ground.

He sits on the couch on the right side of the one Keith was laid on, he couldn't just sit and watch the man die, even if what Volt said was true. No one deserves to die, no matter what terrible things they do or will do.

Maybe some people deserves it.

Maybe just one person.

'Take off his shirt, it will help him breath' volt's advice echoes on his head. He didn't knew how that would help, but he was to desperate so any advice is better than anything.

He gets up and goes to where keith is. He pulls him by his arms and struggles to make him sit, a hard task when the person is unconscious and keeps falling to the side like a ragdoll.

After a minute Gus manages to make him sit intact. With his head pending to the side, but still intact.

Taking off his jacket first weren't so hard. Since it was already opened, all Gus had to do was sliding it off from his arms. He places the purple jacket on the floor. 'Now the hard part' he thinks.

Gus grabs the shirt on his waist and lift it up, he stops it when the shirt is on Keith's neck and covering his face, he lifts his arms and slides his sleeves through each one. The bigger struggle was passing it through the neck, Gus sit on the man's lap and with both hands tries to pass the small collar on his costumer's big skull without suffocating him, but since he was not breathing anyway Gus saw no need to be gentle.

Finally, with a strong pull, he manages to take of the piece of cloth. He places it on the floor next to the jacket, without taking his eyes from the asleep man in front of him. Now looking closer, Keith sure was handsome. His long golden hair giving him an angelic appearance. His pale skin looked like made of silk. Gus was hypnotized by his face until something pulling his shirt from behind made him wake up from his trance. He turned around to see Vulcan with his arms crossed disapprovingly.

"what? I'm just seeing if I didn't hurt him by accident" he says. He turns back his attention to Keith and notices a golden chain around his neck, following the chain he saw a red medallion, with the picture of a dragon drafted on it, the medallion was hidden under his shirt, maybe to prevent to draw the attention of burglars. Gus get off his lap and lays him back on the couch, looking for any bite marks or any stain that could indicate he was poisoned.

His chest was clean, then he decides to check his back. "Give me a hand here Vulcan" the small gollen approaches the body and begins to turn him, then he immediately let go, dropping him back on the couch. The golem walks back.

Gus is confused "What's wrong? You saw something?" The golem nods furiously. Gus didn't remember a time where he saw him so scared. He feels a chill on his stomach. "Oh dear, it's so bad?" The golem nods once again, then he grabs one of his long sleeves and pulls him back, like if he was trying to keep Gus away from something. Something dangerous.

"Cut it out Vulcan! Let me see what's going on" he swings his arm and gets free from Vulcan's grip. He kneels and puts his hands under Keith's back and lifts it. It didn't took him so long to realize what made Vulcan so scared.

On his left shoulder was a inverted black pentagram, with the size of a closed fist. Gus knew that symbol. Everyone, actually. It's a popular one that can represents evil and it's usually linked to dark magic. Gus only knew two kind of people that would tattoo that thing on their skin: edgy teenagers, not Keith's case(well, he wasn't a teenager), and…

An idea clicked on his head, it was silly, but worth a try.

He turns to Vulcan "Turn the seal off".

Vulcan nods, denying. Gus insists "Trust me Vulcan, turn it off".

Vulcan stares at him for a few minutes. Then he join his hands, runes appears shining around his body. Gus could hear a low buzz, then nothing. Vulcan takes his hands aparts and nods at him. Gus answers by nodding back, he turns to keith. Moving his medallion of the way, he places his ear on his bare chest. He could hear his heart beating faster and his lungs slowly getting on track again, a smile of relief crossed Gus' face.

He leans back and takes a deep breath, his hypothesis was right, he saved his customer's life.

He turns to vulcan, smiling "It worked, he's fine"

'Not thanks to you, stupid hippie' a weak voice echoed on his head, too deep to be his own.

Gus looks around confused "uh..hello?". He spots Vulcan, that was also looking for the source of the voice.

'over here, idiot!' the voice slowly getting louder, like a roar. Gus notices the medallion was shining with a weak red light. He speaks at the object "It's you who are talking?"

'Yeah, it's me!' the medallion light got brighter 'you're lucky I can't get out of here or I would cut off those stupid play-doh hair of yours!'

Gus frowns at the object "Excuse me? Listen, I went through a lot of stuff today, I won't tolerate being offended by a fancy rock"

"You can't really blame him though" Keith says waking up, he grabs the medallion with one hand and rubs his forehead with the other, feeling like he were ran over by a truck "even more after you almost killed us."

"Hey! It's not my fault. How would I know you're a necromancer?"

Keith stops, he turns to Gus "How did you…" then he notices that his shirt was gone "Oh, I see. When I said I would pay anything for those mushrooms I was talking about money, but if you're looking for something else…"

Gus don't understand the commentary "uh, what do you m…" his face turns head when he realizes "I wasn't..! I- I was looking for…! I'm n-not that kind of…"

Keith gives a discreet smirk, he was amused by the embarrassed shopkeeper. He sits on the couch "Calm down, Gus, isn't? I was just joking. Anyway, now that I'm okay, let's get back to business, shall we?"

Gus recomposes himself, he gets up and looks at him with a serious gaze "Yeah, about that. I won't sell you anything until you say me for what you want the Golden Drops"

"Why so curious now?" Keith says while dressing himself

"What my customers do with my products it's not of my concern. But only because I know they won't do anything wrong or illegal. But you're a different story. Necromancers have a bad reputation on the magic world. So tell me why do you want the mushrooms, unless you want Vulcan to kick you out of here"

The small golem punches the palm of his own hand behind Gus.

Keith studies the man in front of him in silence.

'Just eat his mana and take the mushrooms. Let me take care of his toy!' Helios spoke on his mind

Keith grins 'No, maybe he could be useful' he answers mentally.

Keith gets up. He trembles a bit, still weak from whatever made him feel that way. "What if I show you?"

Gus raises one eyebrow.

"Come with me to my place, you can see what I'm going to do with them. Maybe you could get interested in it"

"No, thank you" Gus denies "I don't want to take part on whatever voodoo stuff you're into."

"What about a deal? I will show you what kind of 'voodoo' I'm doing. If you get interested, I will pay you with something more valuable than money. If not,I will just pay for them, leave the town and you will never see me again" he show him his hand "So? What do you say Mr. Grav?"

Gus looks at his hand. He feels Vulcan hugging his leg, a sign for him to not accept the offer.

'something more valuable than money' sounds tempting.

'He will give you trouble in the future.' Volt warning him once again on his mind.

He will only show him, it doesn't look so bad. It's not like Gus would agree in join in whatever crazy stuff he were into.

He reaches to shake his hand but stops in time "Something will happen when I shake your hand isn't? Some weird mark, like yours, will appear in my hand and I will sell my soul to you without knowing or something?"

That made Keith laughs, so hard that he had to keep himself from falling back on the couch. "No, no. I promise that won't happen" he calms himself "God that would be a very low blow. Even for me" he show his hand once again.

Gus sigh and shakes Keith's hand.


End file.
